oddly enough

Residents of a sleepy French village in Bordeaux have been left dumbfounded after discovering their local 18th-century chateau was completely bulldozed “by mistake.”

The mayor’s office in Yvrac said last week that workers who were hired to renovate the grand, 140,000-square-foot manor and raze a small building on the same estate in southwest France mixed them up.

“The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac’s pride and joy,” said former owner Juliette Marmie. “The whole village is in shock. How can this construction firm make such a mistake?”

Media there reported that the construction company misunderstood the renovation plans of the current owner, Russian businessman Dmitry Stroskin, to clean up the manor and restore it to its former baroque glory.

Stroskin was away when the calamity occurred and returned home to discover his chateau, a local treasure boasting a grand hall that could host some 200 people, as well as a sweeping stone staircase — was nothing but rubble.

Police: Man tells cops prostitute shorted him

OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine

Police say a New Hampshire man is facing charges in Maine after he called police to complain that a prostitute had not given him his money’s worth.

Police announced the arrest of 34-year-old Scott Pipher last week.

The Portsmouth Press Herald reports that the investigation started in the spring. Police say Pipher called them March 25 to complain that a woman he had hired “had shorted him by 10 minutes.”

Police say the investigation led to the arrests announced this week of two purported prostitutes as well Pipher.

Pipher is scheduled to be arraigned in Maine District Court in Biddeford on Wednesday. He could not be reached to comment. His last known address was in Portsmouth, N.H.

Pa. pizza-shop robber says, ‘Have a good night!’

PITTSBURGH

A man who robbed a Pittsburgh-area pizza shop apparently hoped he wasn’t ruining his victims’ evening in the process.

Allegheny County detectives say the man, who remains at large, was walking out of Aprimo Pizza in Mount Oliver with the money he had just stolen, when he turned around to say, “Have a good night!” before leaving.

Police tell WPXI-TV they don’t know who the man is, but they’re hoping surveillance video from the heist last Tuesday will help identify him.

Before his polite exit, police say the man wasn’t so nice. He held a gun to one employee’s back while screaming for another to open the cash-register drawer.

He left after stealing an undetermined amount of money. Nobody was hurt.